due to house move, followed by Christmas, followed by two family dramas I have not been posting for a while, but....I am back This is the first time that I have seen the new layout and this seems like the most appropriate place for this thread but please feel free to move it if I have missed something

Sooo, this is more of a feeler thread so that I can try to be a bit organised. I am potentially getting two 8 week olds, one male and one female, who from what I can tell have been living in the same cage (I have no idea if they are related but I am guessing there is the potential for them to be brother and sister). I don't have the space to keep girls and boys at the same time so I will introduce the boy into my current group and re-home the girl (and any babies when they are old enough).

My three current boys are most likely VERY inbred (they came from a horrible large scale rescue where there were about 30 adult rats and 90 babies all kept together in one filthy cage in a shed) and whilst they have always seemed healthy and have no obvious issues, I know that inbreeding is always best avoided where possible. That being said, if I do get the pair and the girl is not showing symptoms of pregnancy, should I take her to the vet and give her galastop just in case? If she is pregnant there will be no way of knowing how far along she is (unless she is really showing), does anyone know the cut off point where using galastop would not be ethical? I have never had a breeding female before but have a good vet and (I would like to believe) good common sense so I am not too worried about the prospect of playing ratty midwife, I just don't want her babies suffering with deformities.

Now for her companion, he is supposedly only 8 weeks old so he should introduce to my current group quite well (who will be 2 years in October) but they are very tightly knit and I would rather introduce him with a friend of his own age so that not all of the attention from the big boys will be on one baby. I have looked at all the websites for the breeders in my area and they either do not have any litters or have long waiting lists. So here is my conundrum...do I do the dreaded thing of buying a little buck from a pet store? There is a pet store within a garden centre near me (not a P@H) who always seem to treat their rats well, I previously overheard one of the workers telling a potential rat buyer about their needs, diet and bedding substrates which was quite promising but at the end of the day they still probably buy from very shady rat breeders. What would people suggest? I am swaying more and more towards just doing it as apart from the fact that I think it will make introductions easier it will also give him someone to play with when the adults are being 'boring'.

Very sorry for the long thread! Especially as I am not even certain that I am getting them yet (the people have not responded yet) but I have a feeling that I if they say yes then I will be picking them up very quickly so I wanted to get the ball rolling on this one as soon as possible

That isn't true, most good breeders will inbreed a lot - what's bad, is inbreeding without knowing what to select for/against and how.

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That being said, if I do get the pair and the girl is not showing symptoms of pregnancy, should I take her to the vet and give her galastop just in case? If she is pregnant there will be no way of knowing how far along she is (unless she is really showing), does anyone know the cut off point where using galastop would not be ethical?

That's up to you, but it would mean a dozen fewer rats in need of homes, and given that you can't know how they would be in terms of health and temperament, it avoids those risks. I've no personal experience of using galastop, but the ethics are for you to decide. I think it either works or it doesn't, I've not heard of it causing deformities.

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Now for her companion, he is supposedly only 8 weeks old so he should introduce to my current group quite well (who will be 2 years in October) but they are very tightly knit and I would rather introduce him with a friend of his own age so that not all of the attention from the big boys will be on one baby.

I think the need for a kitten to have same age companionship outweighs the ethical issues of buying from petshops, but only just... I would still recommend doing everything possible to source the companion from somewhere else. If you indicate roughly where you are, then someone might be able to offer a suggestion.

I am in Bridlington, East Yorkshire but have family in Teeside so my next step it to look for breeders in that area. I am going wait until this evening and then contact the person with the rats again as I have not heard from them. They are just advertised as free on gumtree so I really don't want them to go to the wrong person, especially if the girl is expecting!

Well, I got too impatient to wait any longer so I just phoned them again and eventually got through....they have already given the rats away I thought that was possibly the reason why they were not responding to messages as the add was 4 days old but I would have thought it would have taken longer to re-home them than that with them being mixed sex. I just really hope they have gone to nice people! It always worries me when I see rats for "free" online in case they go as feeders

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